Found

The end of season nine brings us the first main cast member of the show to leave. Fiona Gallagher, one of my favorite and one of the most important characters has moved out. From the pilot episode, Emmy Rossum has brought the keystone of the Gallagher family to life and she’s going to be missed.

A lot came together on the season finale so let’s start from the top.

Deb moves front and center as the matriarch of the family. With Frank parked on the couch for the next few months recovering from the broken leg, he’s now a full-time burden. Fiona offers to kick off the solution making and Deb says she’ll handle it. A schedule is made to rotate his care and everyone helps except for Liam who is still missing in action. Good timing on him but it makes Deb go looking for him which finally reveals to the family that he’s moved out. Except, he told everyone days ago but no one was paying attention to him.

Now that Liam knows what a functioning home is like, he sees no reason to go back with Deb. He does hand her a list of demands to get him back and a bewildered Deb leaves him be for now. This is two circumstances where Deb took over for what Fiona normally does: organizing care for the family and going to get family from their life in crisis walkabouts.

Deb also bonds with Carl over Kelly the “Heart Beaker.” It’s been a while since these siblings have run together and during this close time she finds out about how bad Carl is feeling. As far as she knew, he was only upset about Kelly. In a heartbreaking scene she finds out that he was also rejected from West Point and he’s going to drop out of military school and work full time at the fast food place to begin working towards store manager. He’s given up and resigned to work long hours next to a fryer. With Liam out and Carl in pieces in front of her she realizes she’s got a lot of repairing to do, something she’s watched Fiona do her whole life.

She takes the high road when she meets Kelly again, telling Kelly that Carl has given up because he now has nothing to work for. Deb was wrong for what she did and what Deb wants isn’t what matters here, it’s her brother. Kelly and Carl had the relationship that was important. When Kelly finds out that Carl is dropping out of school, she marches to Carl at work and pulls him out by his ears. Even Carl’s boss is impressed. It’s a reunion that’s fit for Shameless.

That leaves us with Fiona. She watches Deb steer the ship with a sense of surprise and awe. The groundwork for this started around 2 years ago when Fiona went into real estate and moved out. They were all adults and had to fix their own problems and pay their own way. It was the start of Fiona looking out for herself, she was done with being The Fixer. But then Fiona crash landed back into the Gallagher homestead and she found herself back at the start.

Max wasn’t kidding though, getting her that $100,000 payout in just a few days. A way out was delivered into her hands and the growing sense that she had to take advantage of it couldn’t be ignored. Frank is back sucking the life out of everyone. Deb wants to take over Fiona’s bigger bedroom for her and Franny. Watching Deb handle Frank meant that Deb could take control of anything. Her reasons to stay kept getting smaller. Fiona even gets away with punching the neighbor with a $2,500 fine. Her lawyer tells her to drop the nonsense, grow up and move on with her life. Looking for another push, Fiona goes to visit Ian and jail and he agrees with the lawyer. Fiona is surprised by his answer and he calls it then and there: You are looking for someone to tell you “no.” To pick the easy way for you on a decision that is scary. You have no reason to stay stuck in the mud.

So Fiona does it. She’s caught by Deb packing her bags and Deb runs to get Lip who understands what she’s doing right away. He doesn’t try to change her mind and insists on having a going away party for her and everyone runs out to get everything together. With all of the reasons for her to stay put out of the house, she makes final preparations to leave. If she doesn’t go now, she doesn’t think she ever will.

And then the scene. Frank is on the couch and they have a final confrontation. While he may praise her to others about raising the family herself while he and Monica were slowly killing themselves, he can barely say it to her. With his feebled body on the couch, he doesn’t even initiate the goodbye and his response is curt and shitty.

“You did a good job. Monica wasn’t up to it, you stepped in and helped. Thanks.”

“Helped? I did it all, Frank.”

“Well, if that helps you sleep better…”

“…See ya around Frank.”

“I doubt it.”

Fiona doesn’t try to fight the ego. Why bother shouting to a brick wall? Frank is Frank and that’s always the reason why people want to get away from him. He’s obviously upset she’s leaving, one in a list of many who have done so, but he can’t outwardly admit that. Life goes on and Fiona gets on a train to parts unknown to start her own. Not without a final gift to her family: $50,000.

Emmy leaving creates a big hole in the show. She’s been the nucleus for nine years and it’s going to be weird without her. This changes the family dynamic with the most reliable sibling being taken out of the picture entirely. So what characters step up? Will Deb simply take over Fiona’s standing? Ian is coming back next season, will they add any more new main characters? Bring Kev and V more? While this is sad, at least Fiona isn’t dead. This is the chance to do more with other characters and I hope they don’t leave Fiona as an after thought as is the norm for the show. It’d be nice for her to be mentioned her here and there so we know where she is. This feels like a momentous season that had some good peaks, I hope the writers can keep the momentum going.